


Sanctum Bellatores

by chicagoartnerd



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: BAMF Jenny, Character Study, F/F, F/M, Femslash, Kissing, Magic, Pre-Slash, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2013-12-03
Packaged: 2018-01-03 05:50:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1066670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicagoartnerd/pseuds/chicagoartnerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jenny has been seeing someone in her dreams. Not a demon for a change but a certain witch with red hair. Who just so happens to be married to the resident Rip Van Winkle. She always knew she was going to be the one to break up the team but she had no idea it would be because of a stupid dream crush.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sanctum Bellatores

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoy this fic and a special cookie for people who spot the very obvious Scandal reference. Man how awesome would it be to have a Scandal/Sleepy Hollow crossover with Nicole Beharie and Kerry Washington being badasses and destroying demons dressed like politicians.
> 
> Alas this is unbeta-ed so any mistakes or weird wording is my error and I apologize.

Jenny didn’t sleep much now. If she had been caught at it they might have chalked it up to her psychosis and given her more pills. They were very pill happy here. Medication fixed you, or at least blissed you out enough that you didn’t complain any more. She wasn’t crazy so the medication was crushed beneath her slipper or flushed down the drain. Doing push-ups and clapping on the up stroke, she could spend hours like that. Using her body as resistance training and preparing herself for war. That’s what she really was doing. She was not a criminal in a mental institution like everyone else thought. Jenny Mills was a solider.

A warrior in a hidden war of good versus evil and the prize was every life on earth. Jenny was tough though. Could handle those stakes. Had been honed to handle them. She was Durendal, an elemental sword to cut down the monsters and demons that were to come.  This was her destiny and she now knew it and did everything in her power to prepare her body and mind for the apocalypse.

There was a time when she had been lost and less sure of her purpose. There was a time when she was newly betrayed. That memory made her grit her teeth as she did pull-up after pull-up on the bar.  It was useless. She let go and dropped to the floor in one fluid motion. Something was watching her again. There were eyes on her back and out of the corner of her sightline when she was reading she could see it. The demon that haunted her since she saw it in the woods with Abbie all those years ago. Moloch.

She knew its name so she had more power over it than she should have. It couldn’t touch her but it could watch and taunt. It could try to seduce her. It had done so before. If she only gave herself over to it she would be spared when the world went to Hell, literally. What the demon failed to realize was that Jenny had no desire to reign in Hell on Earth even if it was as a Queen. That had been her childhood and she didn’t want to go back. Even though she hated to sleep she closed her eyes and let the nightmares wash over her once more. If Jenny was lucky she would go to the misty forest land where the spirits of the lost and cursed roamed. Lucky because the red haired woman was there.  

_Katrina._ A sad laugh drifted over her and she sighed.

 Jenny kept telling herself it must be a trap. That the friend she had made in the strange purgatory was trying to sabotage her. She had been seeing her in her dreams since that first night after she awoke in the forest. After she and Abbie saw the four white trees. So she wasn’t a construct of her lonesome subconscious. She was real and probably damned if her state in the dream limbo was any indication. So at first she had avoided talking to her and seeking her out in her dreams. In the end she had given up avoiding her by bothering other souls in the mist. It wasn’t worth the effort. They were even less all there than Katrina. In both form and function, they had very little to say except to moan about their own misfortune. She was different. She spoke of children’s stories, fairy tales from long ago in New England. She told Jenny about ancient fields and the horses her father had owned. Spoke of magic and sorcery as if it was a balm for the world not a bane. Sung songs like a melancholy bird in the trees. Soft, lilting, and forlorn. Jenny ignored her and refused to speak to her but eventually her resolve cracked because she was lonely too. The world of mental institutions was desolate when you still had your mind. It was a different sort of Hell from prison, which in all likelihood she would have gone to had Corbin not intervened. Being black and mentally different was criminal in this country whereas if you were white it was an excuse for your actions. Even if all she did was steal some shit and someone white killed a dozen people with a sniper rifle. In some ways she was really lucky but neither fate was a good one.  So in the end she couldn’t help herself because Katrina was imprisoned as well.

Jenny opened her eyes to the mist as it roiled over the leave-strewn ground. There was no cold in the air just a strange stillness and the hiss of vapor as it swirled around her. The Harris Hawk that was Katrina’s familiar called to her from a nearby tree and she rose to follow it over the shifting and changing ground. It let out a piercing call as it disappeared into the thickly covered clearing before her. Jenny pushed the branches apart and they seemed to dissolve into dust at the touch of her solid flesh.

Katrina was standing in the center of the clearing with soft grass up to her knees. There was less mist and when Jenny looked up she could see the tilt of stars in the night sky above them. For as long as she had been seeing Katrina she had noticed she was not like the other spirits trapped here. She turned to face her and Jenny saw her smile. It didn’t reach her stormy green eyes.

“Read anything new I might have heard of?”

It was a question they had exchanged many times. Katrina could see a little into what was happening in the outside world but not very clearly. She relied on Jenny to tell her of her life and the books she was reading. Because that was what she did while in the institution. She read books and exercised and went to pointless group therapy sessions where she sat silently and tried to think herself away. Far away to a clearing in a shrouded plain.

She had made it a habit to read the classics and contemporary literature of the 18th and 19th century just so they could bandy about the words that seemed to calm Katrina. One book neither one of them quoted or discussed was the Bible. Jenny knew Katrina wasn’t evil like Moloch but she had often wondered if speaking of the Bible hurt her in some way. As a witch or like it hurt Jenny, as a reminder of something painful.

She read the works of Goethe, all of Shakespeare’s plays, and Chaucer.  Just so they could talk and Katrina wouldn’t have to stare at her in mild confusion and kindness. This time Jenny didn’t have any old books to discuss with her. She had a question.

“No. What are we doing here Katrina? Why are you stuck here? Did you make a deal with him?”

She looked like she was in physical pain at the boldness of the question.

“Do not speak his name here. Even thinking of him is unwise for this is a realm of his kinds’ making. I did not sell my soul to him if that is what you are asking.”

Jenny shook her head several times and then stamped her foot to ground her.

“Then why are you stuck here? How am I able to come and go as I please when he has put his mark on me just as much as he has on you? How can he hold you here if he doesn’t own your soul?”

Her look turned bitter and she moved from the center of the clearing towards Jenny. Her hair buffeted on a ghostly wind that was both eerie and melodramatic. Very Katrina. 

“I was weakened by sealing away the horseman among other things. I did not give him my soul or my power. I gave him my body to protect someone I loved dearly and he imprisoned me here. But the demon held its word and did protect him. For as long as any mortal should hope to live.”

“Are you talking about Ichabod? He’s alive you know; and running around Sleepy Hollow with my sister of all people. They seem pretty close.” 

Jenny threw the last part in there as a barb but it didn’t seem to catch at Katrina. 

“Good. It is as it should be. But it is not my husband I was protecting. I am paying my price. I have made my peace with that.”

She didn’t look to be at peace. Jenny knew the look of a caged animal well. Had worn its haggard maw in the mirrors of her youth. It was a bad habit but she was goading her on even though she knew she should stop it.

“So you would be okay if they slept together? Or the bigger betrayal fell in love?”

Her eyes were so bright and clear and Jenny regretted it immediately after saying it but the words were out. When she spoke her voice was quiet and even.

“I am a ghost Jennifer. What love can a ghost provide for her husband? I died so long ago that we are no longer one. He still loves me because it has been but a day for him. Soon he’ll realize how immeasurably long it has been for me.”

Jenny wordlessly reached out for her. Her palm offered facing upwards and when Katrina took it she was solid and cold. But she was there in the moment. Not a shade or a ghost, she was real.

“What if we got you out of here? What then? Would you give my sister and your husband your blessing?”

She laughed and it felt light against Jenny’s cheeks and ears. Her hand squeezed back before slipping from her grasp.

“You have a fire in you Jenny Mills. So does your sister. I can think of no others who would even stand a chance of bringing me back. If you do succeed and I am freed I can think of nothing I would not give you.”

She was close now. Katrina’s hand was hovering over her cheek, their eyes meeting in the darkness. Everything was still. Neither one of them breathed.  And then the ground beneath them heaved, a rumbling growl ripping through the silence. Jenny stumbled back from her and Katrina stared at her, eyes wide with panic.

“Run! Don’t look back!”

Jenny paused long enough to nod solidly before she took off across the clearing. The screeches of Katrina’s hawk calling her onward. Its small brown shadow darting and gliding fiercely alongside her as she ran through the hollow gray lands. 

Her eyes snapped open in the soft pre-dawn light. She turned to her alarm clock and watched the red digits flash six am back at her. In a few hours Abbie would be there to set her free. She was sure she would regret it. Her sister, always cautious, always the hero, the protector. Abbie felt she failed her.

But it was not in the way she thought it was. She believed she had failed to protect Jenny from her demons when in reality she had failed her by not fighting them alongside her. By denying that they had seen the same thing in the woods. By making Jenny spend her the rest of her life being force-fed low-grade anti-psychotics. And for a while she had made Jenny doubt herself. Which was what had hurt most of all.

They had always been each other’s shields and swords. After their mother died they were all that was left of their family. The Mill’s sisters against the world. Sure they got each other in the equal amounts of trouble as out of it but it was survival. It was a home. A home in each other that Abbie had thrown away because she was scared.

The old wound flared to life and Jenny wanted so badly to punch something. Mostly her sister. She had abandoned her to living on the outskirts of society, a trained solider, a head case, loner, the fallen one. Corbin had seen her as she was. A martyr, a warrior, a broken girl that had sewn herself back together to stand unbowed, alone. And before she was institutionalized the final time he had given her the tools she had lacked and trusted her with them. Believed that she was worthy and sane. Or at least as sane as he was. All the same he had supported her sister in her denial. That was a constant point of contention between them.

Jenny knew Abbie would have to face the truth sooner or later and wanted her sister to see what she had done to her. Wanted her to atone for her sins. Corbin had urged her to forgive her but he wasn’t the one who had been cast aside by her. Abbie trusted him, saw him as the father they never had. He had never been let down by Abbie, she was the model cop, the model daughter. Perhaps the only thing she did that disappointed him was never talked to him about those days in the woods. What he knew she had seen from talking to Jenny. And he had died never hearing her apologize.

She had.

 And she had offered Jenny one hell of an olive branch. Her freedom. The ability to move about unhindered and hunt the things that went bump in Sleepy Hollow. A home again. Jenny didn’t want to hope too hard for the last one. She still hated her big sister more than a little bit for how she had treated her. But what if they became a team again. With tall, old, and British along for the ride.

And maybe Katrina too.

Oh that would be really interesting. She grinned at the mental image of Ichabod trying to fawn over Abbie while not offending his recently resurrected wife. Or even better yet what would Ichabod’s face look like if Katrina held her hand like she had in the otherworld? Caressed her face and kissed her. 

She stopped that thought right there. They had an intimacy. You kind of had to if you were the only two souls with your life force trapped in some sort of limbo dimension. But she was unsure if that was what was about to happen before Moloch made himself known. It would probably be a long time before she was able to return to Katrina in the mists and find out.

It wasn’t safe for her to be there for too long and they both knew why. A part of her wanted to close her eyes and go back. Ask her if she knew a way, without selling her soul, to break Katrina from her prison. Maybe there was a book in Sleepy Hollow. A white witch. Perhaps even Ichabod and Abbie would be the ones to find a way to set her free. Only time would tell. And Jenny hated to admit it but she was looking forward to it. The events leading up to the battle for the end of the world.

It was what she was made for after all. 

* * *

 

 

She could tell Abbie was nervous. To the outside observer there was nothing off about her but Jenny knew her little leg taps and the way she clenched her jaw meant she wasn’t comfortable. She couldn’t blame her. The last time they had confronted each other it had been at gunpoint. Now they were just armed with words. Which they could hurt each other with in crueler ways than any bullet ever could. Ichabod was there though and even though he had only known them a short while he could shut them both up. Jenny was still stewing anyway. She sharpened her Bowie knife and then all of her smaller spring activated stilettos while staring pointedly out the window. Abbie read something on her phone, scrolling listlessly while Ichabod looked between the two of them meaningfully.

“Aren’t you going to apologize to Miss Mills, Lieutenant?” 

Abbie looked up from her phone long enough to scowl at him before looking back down. 

“She isn’t always right just because she’s had anti-demon training. Violence is not always the best course.”

Jenny rolled her eyes and let her dagger drop into her palm in one fluid motion before hefting it at the bookshelf in front of her. It embedded itself in the spine of _Great Expectations_ right between the two words.

“Have a little respect for literature! Honestly Miss Jenny!”

She smirked at his affronted face and went back to sharpening her other knives. Abbie smiled lopsidedly at Ichabod.

“Jenny has never liked the classics.”

She snapped her knife shut and turned to Abbie.

“How would you know? You haven’t known me for years. Look at my bookshelves closely and you’ll see how well you know me any more.”

She had started reading them to have something to talk to Katrina about but they didn’t need to know that. In fact she hadn’t told either of them about her otherworldly liaisons with Ichabod’s disembodied wife. Jenny had a feeling though the longer they worked together the more likely it was to come up.  When their eyes met Abbie looked away. She looked hurt.

Good.

She deserved a little bit of hurt for what she did. Ichabod instead rose from the large oak table he was sitting at and went to peruse the bookshelves.

“I do not recognize a great deal of these. I might have to reacquaint myself with what is now classic literature to you. What are your feelings on _Frankenstein_?” 

“You might like it. Doctor plays God and makes a monster out of convict corpses. Although it might hit a little too close to home with all the demons we’ve been facing.”

Abbie put down her phone and stretched. She looked at Ichabod picking up books at random from the shelf and then at Jenny.

“I’m sorry but shooting your way out of problems doesn’t always work.”

Jenny shrugged and put away several of her knives, one in her boot and another her back pocket.

“The upside being there’s no one around to complain about how badly you messed up afterwards.” 

Abbie looked shocked and was about to open her mouth to argue again when Jenny moved past her briskly.

“I’ll listen to you next time. If that’s what you want to hear.”

And then she slammed the door. It hurt to be together like this with her but they were working together. Bickering like sisters again. The hardest part was when things slipped back into the comfortable dynamic she remembered between them. When she had sworn to herself she would never again trust her like that. Never let Abbie be there for her just to betray her trust.   

Her room was mostly empty except for a dresser and her bed. The two bottom drawers were lined with guns, flash/smoke grenades, and knives. The top two simple, loose fitting clothes. There were only certain things she needed and guns and comfortable shoes were two of them. That and a cheeseburger from Gettysburger every once and a while. They would have to take Ichabod some time. He would be horribly offended at the punny name but would shut up about it once he ate the delicious greasy stack that was their double cheeseburger.

Jenny stripped down and threw herself on top of the worn comforter. It smelled like how she had before she was locked up. Gun oil, dove shampoo, and sweat. Her sleep that night was dreamless. 

When she awoke the next morning it was to the sound of a pan being dropped in the kitchen. She tensed until she heard Abbie berating Ichabod, muffled, through the door.  She laid back down and stared at the wooden beams in the ceiling of the cabin. 

 Jenny almost wished she had dreamed of Katrina just so she could ask her how to tell Ichabod they had been speaking. Had spoken while he was still asleep underground in that cave. The fact that they had known each other for longer than he and Katrina had been married. She didn’t want to hold that over him but it did bear thinking on. Jenny knew Katrina for what she was, all the parts she kept hidden from Ichabod while he ran around doing super secret founding father spy missions. She had been inside her mind, parts of her past full of shameful hidden magic, like sneaking drugs, or beer in the forest. Jenny knew it all and more because they had talked.

About silly little words, beautiful sights, nothing. She had heard her sing, more than once, as they meandered through time and memory together. Jenny wanted to ask her how Ichabod could love her if he didn’t know such a big part of her but she held her tongue. Those weren’t the things you said to some one who was still grieving for her husband and herself after two hundred years. 

She rolled off of her bed and got dressed. When she went into the kitchen both Abbie and Ichabod were sitting at the table eating pancakes. Jenny nodded to them silently and poured herself a cup of black coffee before sitting at the head of the table and putting some sugar in it. They looked up from their breakfast and Ichabod was the first to stand up.

“Miss Jenny would you like some hot cakes? They are quite good even if Lieutenant Mills used a ‘box mix.’”

Jenny smirked over the rim of her steaming mug and shook her head no.

“I don’t eat breakfast. Have fun though. Didn’t break too many things making them did you?”

Abbie finished chewing what was in her mouth and shot back.

“That was all Ichabod. I have no idea how some one even breaks a cast iron pan but he did it.”

“If you had simply let me butter the pans as I had remembered it wouldn’t have happened.”

Abbie rolled her eyes and Jenny tried her best to ignore them. They fought lovingly like an old married couple. She opened the newspaper on the table before her to cover up the sour expression that crossed her face. The cup of coffee in her gut turned cold and acidic. Abbie and Ichabod could be together. Everyday picking at each other and smiling furtively back and forth and coming just this close to kissing. She could only do that in her dreams. Literally.

Not to mention one of the people at the table with her was married to her favorite disembodied sorceress. The paper didn’t hold much of a refuge as the front-page news was about the murder of a bunch of Free Masons suspected in cult rituals. So that’s what they were calling it nowadays.

People sure were lazy, blind, or in denial. It made her want to sneer at the masses. It wasn’t for them she fought per say. She fought because it was the right thing to do, because a world with the freedom to be lazy was better than a world of death and destruction. She didn’t want to live in a world with no choice but darkness and depravity, an empty world. Abbie didn’t either. They had walked that road once and it had almost destroyed both of them. Something in them was worth redeeming because as much as it bit at her pride they had both been saved. Abbie was delivered to the law and became a part of it. Jenny was delivered to it as well but came up in the gray areas in-between. She knew how to fight like a solider and a monster. Abbie knew how to fight like a cop. The apocalypse had no idea what it was in for.

If they couldn’t save Katrina. If they couldn’t save Sleepy Hollow and stop the Four Horsemen then there was no one on earth who could. For once in her life she was the hero of the story.  Which was surprisingly ironic because all her childhood she could name on one hand how many girls who looked like her were heroes in stories. Two black girls were going to save the world.

Even though she was the archetypal younger sister, with dark gifts, full of rage and vengeance. Given a flaming sword to smite the evils of the word and lay to waste all that would destroy what was left of her family and her life. Abbie would have trouble giving herself over to it fully when the time came. Jenny already had. That day in the interrogation room when she had told the truth was when she committed herself fully to the side of good. However damned it had made her soul.  

The face of the first man she killed, bleeding out in the sand, crossed behind her eyelids and she slammed it away. Now was not the time to confess her sins. She put down her paper and stood briskly before going to the hidden gun safe in the china hutch and grabbing a 9mm handgun. She wasn’t supposed to be carrying a concealed weapon on condition of her release from the institution but she wasn’t about to leave home without one. Abbie looked like she was going to complain as Jenny turned to her frigidly. 

“I’m going to the annex. There’s something I want to look up. You can come or not. Up to you.”

Ichabod rose to follow her and Abbie stood to go after both of them.

“How do you think you’re going to get there without my car?”

Jenny snorted and pulled Abbie’s car keys from her pocket and twirled them in front of her face.

“I lifted them off you last night before bed. You think you would have noticed being a cop and all.”

Abbie snatched them out of Jenny’s hand petulantly and went towards the car. Ichabod grinned at her behind Abbie’s back and she couldn’t help but smile back. Sometimes that man was like a kid in a candy shop. She knew that the 21st century often outraged him but other times it was plain to see he loved it here. If only for the particular company. 

As soon as they pulled up to Annex she took off inside. Irving held up Abbie and Ichabod in the hallway outside but Jenny didn’t care. She was there to find some very specific books or at least references to them. They came in later and greeted her before Abbie sat down at her laptop and Ichabod joined her in the stacks. She pulled one of two massive reference tomes from the shelves and set them down heavily on the table. Ichabod watched her with interest before coming up along side her to read the ominous titles of the books. When he did he raised an eyebrow and murmured.

“Interesting bit of light reading you have there. If you tell me what exactly you’re looking for I might be of some assistance as these texts are quite old.”

She flipped one open carelessly and enjoyed the pained look he made as dust rose from the pages and puffed into the air.

“I’ve got this. But if you want to help you can reach the book _The Diary of John Dee_ all the way on the top shelf, third to the left." 

After Abbie had destroyed _The_ _Lesser Key of Solomon_ she had done some extensive reading into alchemy, demonology, and necromancy. It wasn’t for people with a weak stomach. The various lords and dukes of Hell weren’t to be messed with.

 That was when she found the book that mentioned Moloch more extensively. She cross-referenced it with pacts with demons in the books and online. Abbie didn’t pay her too much attention but Ichabod kept flitting over to her to see if she needed any thing or to ask how the search was going. Jenny ignored most of his inquiries before he finally broke her patience.

“I understand a great deal of this information is relevant to our current predicament but it is best to tread lightly when reading things that might summon something from the depths of the pit.” 

She shooed him away from looking over her shoulder. 

“I know what I’m doing _Icky_. I’m a big girl; ‘when you gaze long into an abyss’ yada yada. I know.”

He wouldn’t get the Nietzsche reference but he got the general idea.

“I trust your judgment. It’s just you should not hesitate to ask for your sister’s or my assistance should you need it.”

She took her eyes off the same line she had been reading over and over and turned to look at him slowly. Jenny tilted her head to the side and regarded his open and honest expression. Would he be so trusting if she told him what she was looking for and why? Now would be a decent time to clue him in on the fact that she was trying to save his dead wife and had a better idea of how to do it than he did.

But the urge to share passed quickly and she simply nodded before turning back to her ancient necromantic text. He left her alone after that and she was grateful by the time she got towards the end of the book. She strongly suspected some of the incantation pages with sigils for all the demon’s names were made of some sort of skin. When she touched them they felt too heavy and wrong. 

The notebook containing her short hand notes was suddenly full of twisting sigils that she didn’t remember writing. She slammed it shut and carefully closed the massive tome before putting it back on the shelf where she had found it. There was a line she wasn’t ready to cross and being possessed was on the other side of it. That would just be the icing on the cake, her witness sister and her pseudo-boyfriend’s undoing being her own sister. That would be one legacy she wouldn’t want to leave.  So she was back to square one without asking Katrina. Or Ichabod. And she had no idea how to do the latter without revealing why she wanted to know. The former was difficult because she wasn’t sure it was safe for either one of them to contact each other. Jenny had just about exhausted her options. Except for one she never wanted to turn to.

Her own abilities.

The ones her mother had beaten her back black and blue for. Washed her traitorous prophetic mouth out with Dawn dish soap because of. If she had been born in the religious era her mother had yearned for she would have been heralded as a saint or as a witch. If how black women were treated in the past was any indication it would have meant her death by stoning, pressing, or burning. She had read the _Malleus Maleficarum_.

Jenny knew what happened to witches so she understood why Katrina had lied to Ichabod. If only she had had someone to teach her how to hide it she would have too. It would have saved her and Abbie a lot of trouble as girls. But she wasn’t a little girl blacking out and telling long tales in a voice that wasn’t her own any more. On her training and trips around the world she had learned a few tricks.

Now she had enough knowledge to use her power without attracting the attention of evil witches and demons. Little tricks for luck, clear sight, precognition, nothing showy. Nothing as impressive as binding one of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse to remain dormant for several hundred years.

So she stood and stretched her arms before her chest and then walked out the annex doors towards the bathroom. She shut the door and as soon as she was sure the stalls were empty took out her pocketknife and pricked the end of her finger. Then turned on the cold water all the way. Rolling the blood between her fingers letting it coat them and spreading it over her palm. Jenny pressed it to the center of the mirror. Focused all of her attention on the sound of running water. Letting it carry her past her reflection staring back at her with wide black eyes. She was drifting down into the stream, standing as the water rushed past her trying to pull her down. The black and white contrast of the surrounding lands of the dead lay before her and the thin silver cord that tethered her to her body was stretched out behind her. She felt the warm weight of it like a hook buried in between her lungs. The blood had been payment, the water protection. Who she sought could not cross over it to get her. 

“I call ye to me Lori Roberts. Mom I know you’re there. You’re always there.”

The shapes that she had mistaken for stones and trees beyond the shore began to drift closer and she could make out the faces of people she knew and people she had never known. Her mother was the first to materialize fully at the shore. She was careful not to dip even the tips of her toes in the torrent of water lest she be swept away to eternal slumber. The land beyond the shore was a place of restless shades. It was a place for spirits who were too full of rage or sorrow to move on.  Lori Roberts had been there for many years.

“I miss you so much baby girl. You and Abbie. I love you, always have. You know that don’t you?" 

Jenny bit down on her tongue until she tasted sluggish sour blood. She only had so much time to ask her questions before she would be swept away.

“I will have my three questions of you and three answers you shall give.”

Her mother balked at the words and waved a dismissive hand.

“Oh Jenny you don’t have to be so formal. We are blood after all. Blood calls to blood, can’t you feel it.”

She was trying to stall her and she knew it. The water was already more forceful around her calves than it had been when she had first stepped into it.

“First question: Where is the body of Katrina Crane?”

Her mother laughed and it was grating with the aftertaste of too many cigarettes.

“Where isn’t it? It’s in the worms and the trees and the grasses along the shore. It’s in the mid-winter air and the eyes of fish. The body of Katrina Crane long ago turned to dust and blew away. Why do you want to know?”

That was a question she didn’t want to answer but knew her mother would figure it out soon enough. She had suspected that Moloch had destroyed her body after possessing it and that was how he trapped her soul in his limbo but now she knew for sure.

“Second Question: How can I defeat Moloch?”

Her mother’s smile was tight lipped and smug.

“ _You_ can’t. Next question.”

Fuck. She should have been more specific. There were ways the dead were tricky with words even if they hadn’t been in life. It was best to form your sentences, especially general questions, very carefully. Now she only had one more question left and her eyes felt so heavy. Like she hadn’t slept in months. It was the bone weary tiredness that followed the poor from job to job, meal to precious little meal.  All she wanted to do was rest. Jenny swayed on her feet but steadied herself before almost collapsing up to her waist in the frigid water. It pulled at her feet wantonly calling her down. But she had one question left. When she met her mother’s eyes they were sharp and on fire with glee. She wanted her to die so badly. That was enough to make her straighten and form her lips into her final question.

“Third Question then our Agreement is met: How can Abbie Mills and Ichabod Crane save the spirit of Katrina Crane from Moloch?" 

Her mother was no longer smiling.

“You are a fool and sinner. So dirty and foul with it even death will not have you. We do not know everything as you suspect.”

No. She did not come here to fail. Her rage and panic kept her standing, but barely.

“That’s a lie. There are no secrets kept from the dead.” 

“Shut up you little bitch! We burn here. They make us burn for all that we are and we wither and die and do it again. We see things you can never dream to fear.  We are bound by laws as you are they are just different. The last question is one I cannot answer.”

Jenny yelled over the roar of the water that was rising up toward her waist, tugging and ripping at her legs. 

“Then our bargain is not fulfilled. You have broken the contract and owe me a boon which I may call upon in the future.”

Her mother spat at her but it didn’t reach the center of the waves in the tumultuous river.

“Then we are done little Jenny. Go back to what half-life you cling to and let me alone.”

She slammed her open palm into the center of her chest and felt it sink in. Jenny pulled hard on the chord that kept her anchored to her body and she was jerked back, reeled into her flesh once more. When she opened her eyes she was panting and her hair and shirt were soaked with sweat and water. The sink was over flowing around her legs as she sat limp and exhausted on the floor. Abbie wouldn’t understand what she had done and Ichabod would want to know why. Instead she pulled herself to her feet and turned off the water.

Trying not to slip on her weak knees she wobbled down the hall looking strung out and half soaked to the bone. Abbie glanced up at her in surprise and Jenny ground out.

“I fell in.”

When she raised an eyebrow at her she ignored it and pushed to the window seat in the Annex and laid down. A fitful sleep hit her like a shelf of books and she didn’t care any more if Abbie and Ichabod were watching her with concern. Nothing mattered but sleep. Any sleep she could get. Jenny awoke to Abbie shaking her gently and when she almost punched her in the face Abbie not so gently pinned her wrist to the wall behind her head. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

Jenny laughed and it came out more unhinged than she had intended it to.

“Oh that is a loaded question isn’t it? Lots big sister. Too many things to name.”

Abbie let go of her in frustration and pushed back from her several steps to stare at her with her arms crossed.

“You could start with why you came back from the bathroom looking half dead and soaked clean through two hours ago?”

Jenny sighed and let her head hit the back of the window seat.

“I tried something. It didn’t work. There’s nothing more to explain.”

“Uh huh. Would this something have any thing to do with contacting a demon?”

Jenny leaned towards her in a jerking motion and shot back.

“Not unless you want to apply that label to our dead mother. No.”

Abbie’s eyes went wide and she looked scared for the first time in a long time. Jenny hated it.

“What did you do?”

Jenny stood and walked past her towards the doors to the Annex. Right as she was about to open them Ichabod rushed in carrying three Starbucks coffees. He almost collided with her but swerved at the last minute bracing himself against the door frame.

“I tried to find a way to rescue his disembodied wife. See, I’m a team player.”

With that she stormed out the open doors towards the car. Then debated whether or not she should break into it and hot wire the engine while it was parked in front of a police station. Jenny figured she could get away with it but knew it probably wasn’t worth it.

Instead she sat on the steps and let the cold wind whip her long hair around her head. There had to be another way. If it wasn’t too bad maybe in a few days she could ask Katrina in her dreams if she knew what to do. Although Jenny had a feeling Moloch knew she would try to contract someone in their world so it was probably stopping her from telling them directly somehow. 

 Perhaps another medium beside herself with a more agreeable ghost to contact could help. Jenny had a lot of dead family but she never knew them in life, the bond was strongest to her mother, and she knew for sure she walked the borderlands. So even though she was so full of wrath she was all Jenny had. Still even now.

There was movement out of the corner of her eyes and she turned just in time to see Ichabod Crane stuff his long legs underneath himself and sit down next to her. He eyed her hopefully and offered her a still warm coffee. Sighing through her nose she took it and drank some pensively while looking out over the parking lot. 

“I thank you for whatever brave act you dared to try to help Katrina and myself.”

Jenny’s stomach dropped and she took the coffee away from her mouth with disgust. She held up a hand in his face to silence him. 

“I didn’t do it for you. I am not nearly noble enough for that. While you were asleep I got to know her. We became friends and I felt, not so alone for the first time since Abbie abandoned me. I did it for me. And for her.” 

He looked pained.

“I am not one to question supernatural happenings as of late but how? I have no control over when or where Katrina comes to me. How are you able to contact her thusly?”

Jenny’s smile was crooked when she turned to him.

“Katrina’s not the only witch you know.” 

His eyes went wide and his mouth became a small “oh.” Ichabod turned down to look at his hands deep in thought for a few moments. Jenny felt nothing. There was no relief about coming clean because she didn’t tell him she wanted to kiss his wife. Wanted to take her away from Sleepy Hollow and the end of the world where she would be safe. Somewhere sunny with lots of birds that sang. So she would sing along and Jenny could close her eyes and listen with the sunlight on her face. She wanted it so fiercely her chest hurt and she curled in on herself trying not to let any emotion show on her face.

“Does Lieutenant Mills know Miss Jenny?”

She shook her head. 

“If she didn’t lie to herself about what we saw in the woods maybe she would have been able to see it. She just thought Momma picked on me more because I was the youngest. Abbie tried to protect me but she didn’t know. Why our mother hated me so.”

There was a terrible sympathy in his eyes and she had to look at her hands so it didn’t burn her.

“Lieutenant Mills refuses to speak of her childhood to me except suffice to say it was not a happy one. I don’t wish to pry any more at old wounds but it might benefit us both if you told us all the things you know.”

Jenny sighed and shook her head.

“Most of it won’t make sense to people who don’t have the gift for it. A lot of magic is ritual but if it was just words in books then every one could do it. There is a part that is inherent, unspoken, in the being of a witch that they see and feel certain things. That’s why you could never truly know her.”

He looked angry. For the first time since she had met him she saw frustration and rage in his gentle gaze. She wondered whom it was for. Himself, Katrina, her?

“I do feel betrayed by Katrina’s lies as to her nature and we will have words once she is here and safe again. There are so many things she had kept from me other than her magics it seems.”

Jenny raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“All is not well in the blessed world wedlock I take it?”

He looked away from her and spoke more to the sky than any one else.

“As I lay dying she was with our child. We have a son that I will never know who died almost 200 years ago. I am not taking it especially lightly.”

Jenny let out a hiss of breath through her lips and suddenly felt like a real asshole. She had been through hell but at least all through it she had had one person she could talk to. Ichabod hadn’t even had that and the person he wanted to see from his past the most was so far from his reach in more ways than one. Then again he needed to know that. Also he might have been alone in his grave but now he wasn’t. He had Abbie and Irving and if she was being honest he had a friend in her. Even if he wouldn’t view it that way in the near future. She was going to let Katrina explain how she felt to Ichabod because that really wasn’t her place. And she was pretty certain she would mess it up and get a punch to face for her efforts. 

“I’ve never really had a relationship like the one you had with Katrina. The closest I’ve ever been to anyone was with Abbie and then she betrayed that trust. So I understand a bit of how much that hurts. If you ever want to talk about it I’m here.”

Jenny patted him awkwardly on the back and then made to stretch. He looked touched and started to say something when Abbie interrupted them from behind.

“There’s been a sighting of some suspicious activity involving men speaking German. Also they’ve found the body of a hunter shot a point blank range in the forest pretty close to where we were found after seeing the white trees.”

Abbie looked at her uneasily but she nodded solemnly in response. She had made her peace long ago that she was going to have to go back there and confront her “literal” demons. Just having more than a few minutes notice would have been nice. They rode to the crime scene in silence and her sister had the nerve to tell her to stay in the car. Fat chance of that happening.

 As soon as Ichabod and Abbie left for the body she followed the familiar trail of death around the perimeter. There had been another hunter here with him and something else. Not Moloch. She closed her eyes and let her fingers ghost along several of the trees. It jumped and she felt it between her fingers like a cold shard of iron. When she pulled it out of the rough branch it had caught on her eyes snapped open. A thin long white hair was rippling and struggling, clutched in her fist like captured wind. His name was death and he rode a pale horse. This was a waste of time and she was sure that Abbie and Ichabod were realizing that as well. But she didn’t let the hair squirm free. Instead she pulled out a length of her own while wrapping it deftly around the squirming horse’s hair she muttered a binding and it stilled. Jenny placed the new phylactery into her pocket and walked back to the car in time to crawl into the backseat and shut the door before Abbie and Ichabod returned. 

“Let me guess you didn’t find anything useful.”

Abbie turned to glare at her but Ichabod responded.

“It looks like the poor fellow was murdered by a Hessian solider but we could not discern the cause of the attack.”

Jenny could. But she was holding back the fetish she now held because they wouldn’t understand why she wasn’t scrying for the horsemen’s mount immediately and leading them to him. She now had the ability to locate him whenever they were ready to face him. Until he figured out that they are using his horse to find him they would have a distinct advantage. And even when he did figure it out she still might find a use for the hair of death’s horse. Or Katrina might when she sets her free. When they got back to the cabin no one felt much like talking and she took that as a blessing and went to the bookshelf to pull out an ancient copy of Milton’s _Paradise Lost_.  She knew Moloch was the puppet master behind some of the worst dealings in Sleepy Hollow but there had to be others. Other warlocks, other demons, and if the book of Revelations was any indication the anti-Christ themselves. This was just the beginning and they needed all the help they could get. Even if so far she was proving to be a generally divisive force. Together they might be greater than apart. That was how that sort of thing worked wasn’t it? She read the same passage over and over again until her eyes started to cross. A knock at the door made her jump to her feet and slide a knife from her back pocket in one fluid motion but Abbie motioned for her to stop.

“We ordered pizza. Ichabod’s never had it.”

She raised an eyebrow and shrugged, re-sheathing her knife and sitting back down on the worn olive couch, legs crossed, with her left foot under her. They grabbed the comically large pizza box and the smell of it almost knocked the wind from her lungs. Hunger hit her like a bolt of lightning and she sat down begrudgingly with the other two at the table. When Abbie opened the box the smell of fresh meat and cheese wafted out along with a cloud of visible steam. Her eyes shone with glee and she handed Ichabod and Jenny giant cheese strung slices. He eyed the dripping strings of mozzarella with curiosity and Abbie grinned as she showed him how to fold the massive slice down the middle and eat it East Coast style. He followed her example and probably burned his tongue if his surprised face was any indication. Both Jenny and Abbie laughed at his distress as they tore into their own pieces of meat lovers pizza. She ate several more pieces before settling back in her couch seat to digest them. From her perch she watched Abbie wipe a long string of cheese from Ichabod’s nose as they both laughed. She felt so out of place. Like the third-wheel on a date that lasted a lifetime. The cold whisper of her bed was calling her and when she walked down the hallway towards it she felt her bones creak like the floorboards. She felt so old all of a sudden and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Under several layers of blankets she drifted off into a fitful sleep. Jenny wasn’t expecting to see Katrina again so soon but the dream came unbidden.

* * *

 

 

 

 

It was an old dream.

One that she hadn’t had in so long she knew it must be Katrina’s doing. 

They had been meeting on and off for years in her dreams. Sending each other memories, of the good and bad variety. It was how Corbin had been able to send her to retrieve certain artifacts and tomes. She had just known where they were from memory. Just not her own memories. So it was to Katrina’s home in New England they drifted.

There was a twisted black crab apple tree on the edge of a field newly furrowed by a horse and plow. Any sunlight of the day was obscured by low hanging gray clouds. The rolling fields of grass and an ominous line of trees beyond cast a whole dreary mood to the scene. Katrina was sitting at the base of the tree playing with one of its stunted apples between her small hands. She was younger, not much older than Abbie had been when the demon had trapped them.  Her burning red hair wound around the back of her head in a tight braid.

As she crept closer along side her she watched the apple pass back and forth between her hands. A blur of ripe red, green, shriveled burnt black, then shimmering gold. When Jenny got close enough to see her face her eyes were cast out over the field and far beyond. Something moved off to their right and Katrina turned to face away from her. A bird, the same hawk she had seen in limbo, came tearing from the forest to land at her boot-clad feet. She held out her hand and the bird deposited a small bloody lump into it. Katrina frowned at it as it started to smolder and let off a dark blue smoke. It burnt down to a small blue berry sized bezoar and she ate it grimacing. Her hands flew to her throat and she collapsed, sprawled out on her back, eyes unseeing towards the sky.  Jenny reached down to touch her face, close her eyes.

The dream had never lasted this long before. She had only ever seen Katrina shifting the apple back and forth between forms. But when her hand drifted over her face Katrina grabbed it, her eyes entirely black and fathomless.

“Find the oldest Rowan tree then bury that lock of your hair beneath it. Return when the moon rises and you will find a hag stone. Look though it without blinking.”

She let go of her hand and Jenny felt like she had just been punched in the gut. Sputtering for air she stumbled back from teenage Katrina’s prone form into another memory. But this one was hers.

They weren’t supposed to be out there. But unsurprisingly Abbie and Jenny did a lot of things they weren’t supposed to. The forest was still an adventure even though they had spent many days of the childhood running away into it.  It was older than any other part of Sleepy Hollow and every time they stepped inside it felt like they had traveled to a timeless place.

The woods in all the fairy tales their mother had never let them read. The “Godless” stories of witches, dragons, and sisters. One outspoken and one contemplative, who wandered into the forest alone only to find a ungrateful dwarf with his beard stuck in a tree. It was the ageless dark forest, a character in their story now. And they still ventured there even though now that they were older it felt more dangerous. Like less of an escape and more of a risk. Something in the forest or them had changed. Looking back it was probably both.

They had smuggled some of their foster father’s beer from the garage as they took their bikes from it that morning. It had been burning a hole through their backpacks all during class and when the bell finally rang they tore laughing and screaming into the woods behind St. Bartholomew’s.  Abbie ripped into the first can of cheap beer and it sputtered and foamed and she yelped and almost dropped it. Jenny laughed and smugly tapped the top of her beer several times before it opened with only a hiss. Abbie glared at her contemptuously but then grinned as they both toasted and drank the lukewarm beer. It was disgusting but it was forbidden so it tasted all the better for it. She laughed at Abbie’s grimace and chugged the rest of her beer before crumpling the can and throwing it as far as it would go. It dully hit a tree several yards ahead of them and to the left. It was a big tree towering over the rest of them. Red bunches of berries shone in its boughs like strange rubies. Its trunk was so wide that it would take four of her holding hands to fit around it. She stared at it strangely as Abbie came up beside her and punched her in the arm. 

“I’m done. Lets get back before some one starts to miss us.”

Jenny stared at the tree for a few more beats of her heart before turning to follow Abbie deeper into the woods back around towards the main road where they could ride their bikes. The world around her rippled and she knew what was next. Dreaded seeing those four white trees and the shape that rose up before them. But it doesn’t happen, instead the scene bleeds gray. Washing out like chalk in the rain and leaving behind the hazy gray purgatory she didn’t want to visit tonight.

“Why am I here?”

Katrina was behind her but she didn’t turn around to face her. Jenny felt her brush along her right side as she came to stand next to her facing the grim black shapes of trees in the foggy forest.

“I tried to show you but I wasn’t sure you’d understand.” 

Jenny rounded on her furious now.

“What? Do you think I’m stupid? I heard the instruction loud and clear. I even know where the oldest tree in Sleepy Hollow is apparently. You didn’t need to bring me here.”

“I only meant to be sure. I didn’t think, don’t think, you unintelligent Jenny. Surely you know that. Truthfully? I wanted to see you again. There was something unspoken between us last time you were here.”

Jenny let out a slow breath through her nose and stuck out her chin defiantly. 

“Well then go ahead a say it. I’m used to hearing it enough from girls like you. Beautiful women, unattainable, in love with men. And it is hopeless you know my sister has,” 

But she didn’t get to finish because Katrina had lunged forward and kissed her. At first to stop her from speaking and then slowly to feel the shape of her mouth. Jenny tried to murmur for her to leave but it came out as a gasp when she dragged her closer. It had been a long time since she had been kissed like this. Tender and gentle, the exploratory first kiss of a relationship. It was also unmistakably feminine. Jenny almost moaned at the thought. She reached down and wrapped her arms around Katrina’s waist letting her hands find the back of her neck to deepen the kiss. Katrina’s hands tangled into her black hair and pulled. She gasped, then smiled against her mouth before running her hands along Katrina’s ribs. The both shivered and Jenny was the first to pull them apart. 

“Okay you’ve convinced me that freeing you from this place is a good idea.”

Katrina laughed and this time it was loud and full of life. It carried over their surroundings and seemed to shatter the gloom around them. She was glowing now. Warm and alive in the sun and for the first in a long time Jenny saw her smile. It was infectious and she was laughing and smiling too.

“I don’t want to go but I think I have a tree to find.” 

Katrina reached out and brushed one of Jenny’s springy black curls behind her ear fondly. 

“The feeling is not mutual. This is not place to feel love, to hope for it. Set me free and I’ll show you what I am truly like when I am in my full power and elated.”

Jenny raised an eyebrow at that. Magic sex was not the first thing that had come to mind when she had heard that Katrina was a white witch of great skill. But now it was on the table and she had to admit the thought was intriguing and more than a little dangerous. She stepped forward and took both of her hands in hers.

“I hope the next time I see you it’s in Sleepy Hollow.”

And with that she squeezed, let go, and ghosted through the ground. It was a short drop back into her body and when she jolted upright in bed her bed her body felt hot all over and strangely foreign. Jenny pinched her arms several times before putting on her pants and boots and slipping out the bedroom window. She found the tree after an hour of searching on foot. It had a strange glow around it even on the nearly moonless night. It was dangerous to be out at night alone in Sleepy Hollow for more than just the headless horseman. She would have to come back tomorrow night when the new moon rose and started to swell once more to be able to find the hag stone.

Jenny pulled the phylactery out of her pocket and used her knife to dig a hole to bury it in.  The horses hair shone silver through the cracks of her black hair wound around it but it didn’t move. She covered the hole with some dirt and waited. Nothing happened the clouds continued to roll in while the wind crept its way through the tree roots and leaves on the forest floor like a muscled cat. She thought about staying there at the tree because she had a feeling time passed differently there. And it wasn’t as cold around the trunk as it was everywhere else in the forest. If she just closed her eyes and leaned against it she could doze until the moon rose many times more than she needed. The story of Rip Van Winkle made her stiffly step away from the warm inviting roots of the Rowan Tree and make her way stealthily back through the knotted woods. When she got back she pursed her lips in frustration. Some one had shut her window and they obviously knew she was gone.  Biting down hard on her pride she knocked on the door and shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket. The surly sleep tousled face of her sister emerged from behind the door’s curtained window and she jerked it open enough for Jenny to snake her way in.

“What do you think you’re doing?” 

Jenny shrugged and walked over to the stove to put the metal kettle that was sitting there on an open gas flame she had just flicked on. Abbie wasn’t going to let this one drop either. She was acting shady and sneaking around enough that what she was doing seemed untrustworthy. But she should know better than any one else where Jenny’s loyalties laid.

“I went out for a walk. I get restless being kept inside. You don’t have to think too hard as to why that would be.”

The last part she injected some venom to make her jaw hurt. Abbie didn’t flinch though and it wasn’t enough to dissuade her from calling her out again.

“That might be the case but it’s not safe for any of us to go out alone at night. Not with him out there. Especially not in the forest.”

Jenny rolled her eyes and slumped back against the wall. 

“I’m not going to hide inside every night till the sun comes up. I’ve been training for years for this war and I’m going to fight it. However I can.”

Abbie’s face broke into something desperate.

“I’m not saying you can’t fight. I’m saying you don’t have to do it alone. If we’re going to war it’s going to be as a team. Start acting like you’re part of one.”

She wanted to come back with something cutting about how Abbie was the one who proved herself untrustworthy. Jenny held her tongue and waited for her to leave her alone. But instead she stared at her while the hot water started to whistle and Jenny was the first one to break eye contact and make a cup of tea. Then she turned on the lamp in the living room to sit down. A few moments later Ichabod emerged from his room and saw the two of them sitting opposite each other on the couches staring daggers. 

“I heard the kettle and thought we might be having a late night meeting of some sort.” 

He trailed off as he gestured towards the tea but then busied himself with making a cup while muttering about how barbaric making a single cup tea was. Abbie stared into hers while Jenny sipped hers pensively, not worrying about how it was scalding the back of her mouth. Ichabod joined them by sitting on the perilous arm of Abbie’s couch and watching the air crackle between the two of them owlishly. When no one moved to say anything he cleared his throat and said.

“Has something happened?”

Jenny turned to him ready to tell him exactly what Katrina had said and what she had done while she was dreaming but at the last second veered into safer territory.

“I was just following instructions and before you jump all over me I’m not in league with any demons, just his wife. But I’m sure if you ask some people a witch or two are just as bad." 

Abbie’s eyes grew wide with realization and then she ground out.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Tell us? We could have gone with you!”

Jenny shrugged. If she was being honest she didn’t want them along. It had seemed like a fairly personal thing to her and neither one of them would have understood what she was doing or why she came back without saving Katrina.

“You can come tomorrow night I guess. I have to go back. She only told me how to do the first step. It’s apparently not an easy thing to free some one from the hold of a demon. Quick question, Ichabod do you own anything of hers I can borrow?” 

Abbie looked like she wanted to interrogate her but Ichabod eagerly chimed in.

“Yes! Actually I just recently acquired something. It was a gift to her but she wore it frequently. Will this do?”

He handed her a beautifully simple emerald on a chain and she turned it over gently in her hands. Oh. She wanted to laugh but she was sure that would give the wrong impression. So instead she grinned widely in response. Oh yes this necklace would do nicely if she needed an earthly tether to anchor Katrina’s soul to. Because she had been tricky and left a piece of her magic in it for some reason. Or perhaps it had been involuntary, she had a feeling this necklace was not freely given to whomever had had it before Ichabod.

“Yeah this will work. Thank you.”

Abbie raised an eyebrow at that but Ichabod practically lit up at her thanks and nodded. 

“If it will help bring her back I would give you this and gladly anything else.” 

Jenny smiled sadly at that. Katrina had a very sad puppy of a husband to explain things to. Although husband was a debatable term because Jenny was sure that whole “till death do us part” was a pretty immutable part of those vows. And both Ichabod and Katrina had died. Hopefully he would see it that way. Or being with him wouldn’t overwhelm Katrina with such a feeling of nostalgia that she would remain with Ichabod like neither of them had changed in 200 hundred plus years. Like one of them hadn’t already moved on. And the other was in the process of moving on, with her sister of all people. The atmosphere in the room had dropped to something less stormy and Jenny took this as her chance to leave and actually sleep enough to feel human in the morning. Not that she was entirely sure she was fully human but that was beside the point. When she dropped into bed she fell asleep almost immediately. 

* * *

 

 

 

The next morning she woke up when the sun was high in the sky and when she went out into the living room Abbie and Ichabod were nowhere to be found. She considered walking into town to steal a car and getting so far away that the end of world was a hazy memory. Somewhere she didn’t have to deal with her sister or her maybe semi-dead crush and her crushes husband. That wasn’t even the most complicated part of the entire situation because a demon and the grim reaper were involved as third parties. Then again her life had never been normal or easy. Or happy for that matter. At least when she was here banishing demons and shooting Hessian soldiers full of holes she smiled. Felt elation and when she thought of the kiss last night. So she didn’t walk down the long gravel road, kicking up angry dust behind her to find the nearest farm pickup truck to lift. She curled up on the couch and looked down into the tea in her black coffee mug and zoned out. She didn’t mean to scry but she fell into the headspace in the still black water and what she saw was not comforting.

Flashes of images mostly of Abbie and Katrina. Abbie and Corbin in a diner eating pie. Katrina turning into a hawk identical to her familiar and flying off into the dusky forest. Another of scene with Abbie graduating the police academy with full honors with no one there to congratulate her. A ripple of Katrina writing letter after letter to Ichabod while he’s off on one of their secret societies missions. Abbie crying alone in her apartment where no one could see her. Katrina burying her husband alone in the cave with various protections and jars full of herbs by herself. Because no one else could know where he was otherwise the fate of the world would perish with him that day. The last one was of Katrina handing a baby to some one with a hooded robe while her eyes were bright with unshed tears. 

When she resurfaced she was covered in sweat and panting loudly. It was the only sound in the entire house. The sun was almost dipping below the horizon and she wondered briefly if she should wait for Abbie and Ichabod to get back. Instead she took a shower and put on her most comfortable cargo pants, layered tactical vest, and thermal under armor shirt.  Her phone buzzed at her and she looked at the several missed texts to see that Abbie and Ichabod were on their way to pick her up and they would be to the Rowan tree by moonrise. Even if she wanted to do this alone it looked like she wasn’t going to get to.

They pulled up dusk was already fading from purple to black and she locked the front door of the cabin behind her as she made her way to Abbie idling in her civilian-make car. Jenny gave them directions to the tree and they drove there in silence. The walk from the road wasn’t nearly as far as it had been from there to the cabin. When they arrived there the tree seemed less brilliant than it had the night before when she had come alone. Jenny had a feeling it had something to do with the way the tree showed itself to others. She could see it for more of what it was more than they could. She touched the trunk and felt the tree call out a greeting to her. The red berry bunches lit up like lanterns. She heard Abbie gasp and grinned. She felt the moonrise in the space between her shoulders as it clawed its way up into the sky.

It was easy to see once she cast her eyes towards the ground. The adder stone was lighting up with a glimmering glint. It was the crystal with a hole in the center at the roots of the Rowan where she had buried the horse hair wrapped with her own. She picked it up and Abbie said something but she didn’t catch it.

Nothing else mattered but the stone and the hole in its center that was getting bigger and bigger the longer she stared at it. Either that or she was getting smaller as she fell inside it. Bringing it to her right eye she looked through the center and saw Katrina standing in front of the Rowan tree but only through the center of the stone. Otherwise she wasn’t actually there around the edges of the lens. Jenny closed one of her eyes and stared straight through the center of the witch stone. It was like being in one of those twisting tunnels at the fair grounds or in the opening of a James Bond movie. The world was swirling and contracting to the fixed point of Katrina in front of the tree. Everything stopped spinning and the passageway spat her out. Jenny was standing in front of the Rowan tree with her in the strange limbo land she visited regularly. 

“We don’t have much time.”

Katrina’s voice was hollow and echoed strangely, her hair moving by an unfelt wind about her face. Jenny froze. The thing in front of her was not Katrina. Maybe it was some sort of test but she was starting to feel wrong. The person she had seen last night in her dream had been aglow with light. That had definitely been Katrina but this was not. She reached into her pocket and wrapped her hand around the emerald necklace. It burned in her palm and the heat tingled up her arm across her chest making her feel more solid. She held her ground and smirked crookedly at the thing before her.

“And you’re here to stall me I see. What words should I use?  In the name of Jesus Christ I compel you? Be gone foul creature? You have no power over me?”

The imposter turned its head at an oddly bird-like angle and cackled. Its real voice had the rasp of beetles wings and dead leaves.

“He does though. We know you Jennifer Mills. We see you.” 

It disappeared in a hiss of smoke and ash and she ran past it as fast as her legs could carry her. The blurry landscape of the gray forest jumped and shrank from her and she felt like she was going too fast and going nowhere at the same time. Branches and moaning figures reached out to grab her and pull her off her steady path through the woods. There were no defining landmarks to navigate by everything was shifting but she just knew she had to go in this direction. The stone setting of the necklace was singing in her hand as she stomped her way through the crumbling landscape.

When she burst through the underbrush the moon was hanging massive and orange in the sky. It was close enough to touch the horizon and silhouetted against it was Katrina. Jenny pulled to a stop when she saw her feet twined and anchored to the ground by twisting roots with biting thorns. A howl started from close by and was picked up by another creature that carried straight through her. Jenny caught Katrina’s eye and when she slowly turned her head there was blood in her right sclera. Her mouth was draw in a thin line of pain. 

“They knew you were coming.”

Jenny didn’t care. She was here through the hag stone and that was their way back. She had Katrina’s power clasped in her hand as soon as they crossed the threshold she could easily restore herself. At least that had been the plan. But now she was quickly running out of options.  She tried to pull the thorns away but they shredded her and made her waver in and out of consciousness.

“Do not touch them! They’ll drain you of all your life force before you even pull the first layer back.”

She grit her teeth and stared determined into Katrina’s eyes. 

“I’m not giving up.”

She kicked at the roots with her boots and tried to put all of her strength behind it. They cracked but her bones groaned up her shins all the way to her ribcage. Jenny dropped to her knees and screamed in frustration. They had come too far for this to be how it ended. Then realization dawned.

“Lori Roberts I summon your shade to aid me in my time of need. Free Katrina Crane from these roots that ensnare her.”

There was a shifting cloud of gray that materialized in between both of them. 

“I told you girl there are some things that even spirits can’t do!”

She was spitting mad but Jenny wasn’t going to let her get away with anything this time.

“Then aid me! Protect me while I pull them off of her. Just help me this once. Just this once.”

Her brown eyes were pleading and the black eyes in her mother’s sockets held pity and if she was being hopeful, regret. She lunged around Jenny’s shoulders and covered her arms and hands with her own letting Jenny slip into her ghostly form like a hand into a glove.

She didn’t waste any time as a low growl scraped over her back into her ears. The first root was brittle and came away crumbling in her hands but the ones below it were stronger and she had to brace herself low and pull with all of their combined strength to remove them. Searing red pain flared up her neck as something sunk its wicked claws into shoulder blades. Jenny bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood but she didn’t let go. Whatever had her was pulling her back with unnatural strength and the scream of agony that came out of her mouth was both she and her mother’s. The last massive root came cracking away in her hands as the demon pulled her from Katrina. As soon as she was free she lunged for Jenny wrapping her hand around her forearm and pulling her back. The edges of her vision were bleeding into fuzz and gray but she shoved her hand into Katrina’s and pressed the emerald necklace into her palm. All the strength she had been calling on left her in that instant and the monster that was burrowing its way under her skin released her violently. She fell forward onto her knees. Her mother was fading from her shoulders. 

“See you soon baby girl.”

She couldn’t see her face but the malicious smile was obvious in her voice. Her vision flickered and when she looked up at Katrina she had to squint against how bright she was glowing. The words tumbling from her lips weren’t being said aloud and yet they were crisp, precise, and in a language Jenny felt more than understood. Every syllable ringing through her head and chest like a church bell. There was something going on behind her but she couldn’t see it and didn’t have the energy to tear her eyes away from Katrina whose were entirely green as lightning sparks of her bright white magic danced through her hair and down her back and shoulders. Power was gathering in her fists rapidly and with the final words of the incantation there was a blinding explosion like a flash bomb and she closed her eyes against the force of it while feeling the magic wash over her prone form harmlessly. Her head was so full of cotton she could barely breathe. Her body was both empty of all strength and heavy like a sack of river rocks. There were gentle hands on her face. When Katrina spoke it was with her lips against her left ear. 

“You did it my love. Stand and take us home. I know you are tired but I can help you now.”

Jenny’s eyes fluttered open and Katrina pulled back to smile brilliantly at her. With her help Jenny rose to her feet and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Then pictured the Rowan tree and outer curve of the witch stone’s inner ring of crystalized quartz. There was a shift below her and they were flying as a hawk and a raven, racing towards the tree. The eye of the stone was like a fish eye lens and they both yelled as they shot through it in bird form. Her surroundings were swirling and she was back in her body again. Katrina reached across the shifting space and pulled her to her, sheltering her in her arms as they landed hard on their feet before the Rowan tree.  Jenny couldn’t draw a very deep breath without coughing and almost blacking out but she took her aching head from Katrina’s shoulder and looked at her marvelous green eyes.

“Well that was fun.”

Her voice warbled dangerously even though she tried to force a smile into it. Katrina did laugh and it was soft and breathy. Then her hands were smoothing her face and hair, her lips pressing gentle bird-like pecks against her cheeks, her eyelids, and Jenny’s mouth. She grinned stupidly and kissed her back.  A disgruntled cough caused her to pull slowly away and open her exhausted eyes again. They both turned in unison, Katrina startled and Jenny looked as if she was about to face a firing squad. Ichabod looked shattered and Abbie was glaring with stony resolve at her not Katrina. Sighing as deeply as her bruised lungs would let her she leaned against Katrina’s shoulder and murmured. 

“You explain this one. I’m too tired for this shit.”

After that she must have blacked out.

Which to be honest was not the worst thing she could have done. At least she didn’t have to listen to Katrina try to patch things up with Ichabod after that little display. Or have Abbie drill her on being a team player and not fighting so damn dirty all the time. 

When she slept it didn’t seem to leech any of the exhaustion from her body and the few gasps of wakefulness came in painful bursts. Some one fed her some water at some point. There was a soothing hand on her forehead and neck.  Wherever she was she was being looked after. A part of her wanted to rail against it but she was just too worn thin. There was no backup reserve left to fuel her rebellion. Jenny slept through most of the giant storm in their team and she was almost as thankful for it as she was that Katrina was here in the land of the living. 

The strange half-coma she was in finally lifted and she found herself wrapped in a downy comforter on her own bed in the cabin. When she sat up it was too fast and the blood pounded angrily behind her temples and eyes. Groaning softly she curled in on herself and tried to take a moment to adjust to being upright. When she sat up again it didn’t hurt as much and her headache was just a dull ache. Jenny’s throat was impossibly dry so that when she tried to call out the only sound that came out was a scratch croak. But some one must have been listening for her because they opened the door and stepped in. It wasn’t who she wanted to see. 

 Ichabod came in carrying a bowl of something mushy and a mug full of room temperature water. He looked stunned to see her sitting up staring at him and then mumbled something that sounded like “Oh Katrina.” Before sitting down on the dinning room chair that was now perched at her bedside. He gingerly presented her with the mug and she took it in unsteady hands. As she drank it slowly she couldn’t hide her grimace. There was something bitter in it besides water but after the pain of swallowing and the taste of it started to soothe her throat. He kept the bowel in his hand and waited for her silently to finish the watery liquid. When she did he offered his hand to take it from her but she set it down in her lap instead. 

“I’m not sorry for not telling you. It wasn’t my place to do it first of all. Second I wasn’t sure I could break her out and didn’t want to cause unnecessary trouble with you while we were slaying demons and stuff.”

He sighed deeply and when his blues eyes met hers there was nothing but sadness in them. She wasn’t about to get chewed out by the jilted husband then. She briefly wondered how long she had been in and out of consciousness for.

“I understand your part in all this perfectly. And I want to thank you for it many times ironically. It is Katrina’s I take issue with and we have discussed it at length now. She has made it clear that death has dissolved our martial bonds no matter how I feel about the passage of time. She had suffered a thousand life times in that place and for that I grieve.” 

He paused like the next part hurt him deeply to say and she involuntarily leaned in closer and put a hand on his. He started at the action but took her hand and squeezed it gently.

“As we are still close even though I am betrayed by her in more than just her lies about her witchcraft. I feel I should let you know that what you and Katrina do with each other from here on out is none of my business so long as it does not endanger either of you or our Order.”

Jenny eyed him appreciatively. Then broke into a smile. 

“Ever the egalitarian gentleman. I would have fallen in love with you back then too.”

She took her hand from his to punch him playfully in the arm. He grinned lopsidedly and there was only a little pain in his eyes when he did. Things weren’t right yet but at least she hadn’t managed to irreparably break their little squad up just yet. 

He handed her the bowl with what looked like runny grits in it.

“This better be a magically disguised cheeseburger.”

He raised an eyebrow at her response.

“Lieutenant and Katrina both agree that you should be on soft foods until you are fully recovered. I assume a ‘cheeseburger’ is not a liquid.”

Jenny smiled crookedly and said.

“Not when it’s done right. Man you really need to get out more. What has Abbie been showing you American food-wise?”

He looked slightly affronted and murmured.

“On my second day here I partook of a ‘donut hole.’”

Jenny burst out laughing so hard that it devolved into a ragged coughing fit. Ichabod looked alarmed but she waved him away as she fought down her chuckling even harder. After the coughing spurts died down someone knocked on the door and Ichabod stumbled to his feet. Abbie slipped in the door and looked at him with a curious expression before he colored and bowed graciously. 

“I will take my leave of both of you. I’m sure you have much to discuss.”

And with that he stood, hurried, with her empty mug and scrambled out of the room. Jenny wasn’t so sure about that. So she spooned some of the now cold mush into her mouth and gaged. Abbie watched her critically so she choked down another spoonful. She rolled her eyes and sat on the seat beside her bed to stare at her expectantly.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got plenty of time to watch you attempt to eat all of that and still wait for you to talk to me.”

Jenny threw her spoon into the grits listlessly.

“Talk about what? Like how long you’re going to wait before making a move on the now officially divorced Mr. Crane?”

Abbie’s eyes flashed with the same danger they used to before she was about whoop her ass when they were kids. She supposed she wouldn’t fare much better now than her scrawny self had then.

“Maybe like how you seduced said Crane’s wife and then failed to mention that in the very few times you talked about going to save her.”

“I thought it was going to be something like that. You know me well enough to know I don’t love easy. What makes you think I would be any different about that now?”

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose before waving her hand.

“I’m not saying you can’t love her I’m just saying you should’ve have given me some sort of heads up instead of springing it on both of us and crushing Ichabod under your boot heel.”

Jenny latched onto that little nettle and scoffed.

“So that’s what this is about. You’re pissed I helped Katrina break his heart not that I damaged this fragile team we’ve got going, possibly damning us to see the apocalypse first hand.”

Abbie ground out something that sounded like “Maybe both.” And when Jenny leaned towards her theatrically with her hand behind her ear Abbie whacked her hard upside her head. Jenny blinked slowly and when she looked back at her Abbie was smiling for real for the first time in a long time. Jenny let out a silent laugh and something lifted between them.

She tried to eat a little more of the mushy grits before passing them to Abbie who rose with them, opened the door, nodded at her solemnly. Then left her alone to her thoughts. But it wasn’t for long because her door swung in again and this time she let the eagerness show on her face. Katrina wearing a beautifully soft green sweater and form fitting black jeans walked in a few steps and shut the door. 

“How’re you feeling?”

Her voice hummed across her skin. It was so much richer in person that it had ever sounded in Katrina’s prison. 

“Well enough to sit up. So you know strong enough to kick Moloch’s ass again.”

She laughed and Jenny didn’t even try to stop the smile that stretched her cheeks hard enough to dimple them.

“I was so worried the first two days. You were barely breathing, your essence was gray, and strange things haunted the corners of your room while you slept. But then you stabilized and slept soundly for another day and here you are looking at me with those lovely brown eyes.” 

Jenny grinned and tucked her chin reflexively. She wasn’t used to being complimented on anything, especially her looks. Katrina reached out and stroked her cheek, carefully guiding her face up to look her in her impossibly green eyes. 

“I have no words for how grateful I am for what you did, what you sacrificed for me. I will be forever indebted to you Jennifer Mills. I will endeavor to do all in my power to repay the kindness and bravery you have shown me ten fold.”

Jenny leaned into her touch and turned her head enough to mouth and kiss at Katrina’s bare palm. She shivered as Jenny smiled and then darted her tongue quickly over the lifeline crossing it. She had other ideas of what she wanted Katrina to do.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be using words to apologize.”

Katrina let out a low sigh and Jenny let her pull her up to kiss her. It was slow and too careful. Impatient she nipped at her lower lip making her gasp so Jenny could slip her tongue in her mouth and deepen the kiss. Katrina was the first to pull away and both of them were breathing heavily through their noses.

“Not yet. Oh how I long to but you are still not fully recovered. And I would like to take my time and explore you rather extensively when I do. So being in the blush of health would be ideal.”

Jenny groaned and let herself fall back on the bed, a needy look in her eye. 

“Then come lay down with me. Hold me until I’m healed enough that you won’t want to just hold me anymore.”

Katrina smiled fondly as she crawled over her to lie down with her back against the wall and her front spooning Jenny’s back. Her arm snaked over her middle and Jenny curled back into her. 

“You are fully aware I am already at that point. Now sleep my cheeky temptress. There will be more fun and solid food to be had when you wake.”

Jenny laughed and placed her hands over Katrina’s on her waist. She squeezed and Katrina blew a breath playfully against her ear making her squirm pleasantly. She was right. There would be plenty more to do when she woke up again. But at least this time it would be in the arms of someone who loved her and not alone in a mental institution. That alone had been worth the risk of her mortal soul. 

 So what if she had a few less years tacked onto her life. At least she could spend them happy. Jenny welcomed sleep and it took her gently this time. Maybe it was easier when she wasn’t alone. It seemed now she was going to be able to test that theory. That was definitely something to smile about. 


End file.
